Looking through the list of people and monsters being sold my face was a blank mask as I pushed down a desire to start swinging on the people of the Plutus Familia. As they were merely the enablers for the terrible shit I was seeing.
[Elf Female Virgin- 13 years old, trained by the Goddess Artemis in hunting. Lvl 1 ] [Male Boaz- 15 years old, trained by amazons to fight.] [Cat Beastkin Daughter and Mother combo 17-33, Mother is lvl 3 and was captured after the Osial Familia butchered the Sekhmet Familia in the Southern Deserts.]
The list went on describing the people being sold and of course monsters being sold as well. Even the offspring of mundane animals that had been forcibly mated with monsters and their resulting weaker but much more manageable combinations were being sold.
'Like what the actual fuck is with these people.' I thought with disgust... And admittedly with some morbid interest as there was a whole paragraph of an advertisement for female tamed minotaurs that could be milked for their extremely high-quality milk. With their milk actually having some magical properties in helping bones grow stronger and help them heal faster should they be broken!
But my thoughts were cut as I began reading about the major prize of this auction this month being a captured Mermaid which... I was actually very tempted to buy! As mermaids freely given blood were so potent a healing agent, that they could literally reattach limbs within seconds should the limbs be put back on their stumps!
"These lovely ladies are going for a great price! The daughter is still pure and the mother is obviously a great breeder even if you don't trust her to protect you! So can I hear five hundred thousand Valis now?" The caller called out and the crowd made loud whispering noices before a voice called out in turn.
"Five ten!"
"Five ten going once... Twice... Oh five twenty?!"
My lips twitched seeing the price of the daughter and mother being sold being all but what I had managed to sneak out of Orario in my storage and honestly as much as these black-haired cat girls were hot. I couldn't afford them. And seeing the supposed price of the mermaid being a base five million Valis and expected to greatly rise in price?
Yeah I was out of my depths... I was too weak to stomp around in Orario and have fun. But here in Melen, I was just too damned poor to do whatever I wanted as well!
So dejected I walked away from the Flesh Auction without buying anything as I headed back home with my head filled with what ifs... Like those cat girls. Such a damned waste honestly.
But my thoughts of cat girl Oyakadon were cut through as I sidestepped a Pallum that was going to bump into me and probably try to pickpocket me or something.
Undeterred and just ignoring the street rat as I wasn't going to just kill the... The short monster here in the middle of the streets I continued on with my hate for fucking Pallums only strengthen but as I turned into a side road leading out of the Plutus Familia a gruff voice spoke out.
"Hmm fresh blood to Melen I see." I looked to the side and instantly I could see trouble was afoot.
As the source of the voice was a shorter weaselly looking human with a missing eye due to a right swollen scar from from a blade crossing over his face from a knife. And he was walking alongside me from his perch on a patio leading to a brothel.
"What do you want?" I asked bluntly and the man smiled with darkened chipped teeth entering my eyes making me grimace as this world. As stuck in fantasy as it was, did literally have proper hygiene items due to the gods not wanting the mortals to smell like shit in their own words.
And with that nasty smile the man said happily. "I saws you going to the Flesh Auction. You had so much confidence in going, buts you are weak... So you have money instead Haha!" He cackled and silently in my sleeve that covered up my hand I palmed a long knife from my inventory that I could easy throw into his face should something happen.
But instead of just robbing me he continued on. "Yes! You have some money so come, the Plutus Familia has special shops over here, come see the wares!"
I blinked as the... Obviously mentally fucked up dude was actually aggressively pulling me in as a customer and looking around I noticed that a couple whores or otherwise people were approaching some people in better clothes like me as well too. Just a lot more subtly than this pyscho...
'What's it with me and getting the short psychopaths in this world.' I thought tiredly before I nodded and said evenly. "Alright, lead the way then."
Although I wasn't exactly in a rush to buy anything. In reality, I did need to sell some stuff and an official shop even one being held up by an evil god was just a source of money.
So the man quickly led me to the so called hidden shop... Which in reality was a large building the size of like four or five convenience stores put together and was at the heart of the Plutus Familia's territory and closer to the beach front.
"Welcome to the Red Manor, we sell magical treasures, slaves, magical reagents, and the Plutus Familia also offers protection services in loaning out Familia members to guard you for a time." As soon as I was brought to the building a scantily clad woman in a tight-fitting toga was assigned to show me around. And obviously, drain my wallet of all my coin.
It wasn't a bad tactic as the girl knew what the store had and when I asked about a couple of things she concisely answered me and looking around I saw other 'guests' in the private store were pawing at their assigned girls while other servant's brought the items they wanted for the guests own servants to pack them away.
"Hmm, so do you have any reagents with ties to life force, healing, or otherwise potent magical herbs and such?" I asked and the woman nodded as she quickly listed out some materials and of which I only recognized a couple from being from the dungeon's deeper forest and jungle-themed floors.
And lastly, I asked another pressing question. "And do you guys purchase things as well?" I asked after spending the majority of my money in buying up a good amount of herbs and such at a decent price here as I was buying them all but wholesale.
As funny enough... When an evil god's Familia runs a shop using mind-broken slaves and often stole or slaughters people to get their materials and wares. That obviously kept overhead low and allowed them to confidently sell stuff for what I considered a very nice price. Or that could still be me still used to Orario prices.
"Yes customer, though if the items are weapons, potions or otherwise items that will face the rigors of combat, they will need to be appraised before we will offer a price." She said bluntly and I nodded and bade my goodbyes as I made some plans to mass produce some decent swords and armor to sell so I could restock my funds as I did have a lot of basic ore and such I could fuse to make some lower grade weapons that level twos and some fresh level threes wouldn't be ashamed to be using.